It’s worth noting that while China economic growth and tensions in Ukraine remain concerns for equities, there really isn’t any action to speak off to explain the drop in stocks Wednesday morning. With that in mind, the upside reversal we’re seeing isn’t too surprising. Victor Reklaitis explains in the Market Snapshot:

A “fear factor” is “creeping” into markets, but there is also a lack of catalysts, and U.S. stocks aren’t far off from their recent highs, said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Rockwell Global Capital.

“We’re not collapsing,” Cardillo told MarketWatch. “Basically, we have no economic numbers to speak of today, and the market is just following the international markets.”

“The level of implied volatility surged from 50% to 99% with the downside range expanding from $50 by next week’s expiration down to $30.00. Ahead of the halt only 25,000 contracts had traded on Herbalife and within 15-minutes the tally had risen to 57,000. “

Speaking of boring days on Wall Street, just because this week is devoid of large data releases and central bank announcements doesn’t mean you should be complacent.

MarketWatch’s Sara Sjolin reminds us in a timely blog post that when things get slow, every little thing can be magnified in the eyes of the market. Things like worries over China’s economy or potential Ukraine conflict escalation.

All the Herbalife excitement aside, the indices are continuing to gravitate back toward Tuesday’s closing levels. In other words, another boring day on Wall Street. Here’s where we are with just under two hours until the closing bell.

In case you missed it, here’s a recap of the latest presentation by Pershing Square Capital manager Bill Ackman. In late December, 2012, when the stock was trading in the mid-$40s, he revealed a $1 billion short on the stock, claiming it was a pyramid scheme. The company has fought back hard and the bet, notwithstanding subsequent reports from Pershing, has soured. Shares reached a 52-week high of $83.51 on Jan 8.

Ackman’s conference call was heavy on the term “pyramid scheme,” notes reporter Christina Rexrode. It also contained this nugget:

Ackman says his firm has identified more than 200 Herbalife “victims” and handed it over to state attorneys general and the FTC. But one state AG handed the info over to Herbalife, Ackman says, and Herbalife followed up with them by making threats.

The Financial Times website FT Alphaville is breaking the news that the Federal Trade Commission has started a probe into Herbalife
/quotes/zigman/361145/delayed/quotes/nls/hlfHLF, the direct marketer of nutritional supplement that’s the target of a money-losing short by Bill Ackman. Shares are still halted.

Socks tend to go missing. Car keys are often misplaced. Boeing jets with passengers not so much.

There has been no trace of Malaysia Airline/quotes/zigman/200513/realtimeMY:MAS Flight 370 since it took off from Kuala Lumpur en route to Beijing on Saturday despite search and rescue efforts by at least 10 countries.

As the mystery of the missing plane deepens, Boeing remains under pressure, with shares off 0.8%.

If the Nasdaq Composite ends lower for a fifth straight session on Wednesday it would match the index’s longest losing streak since Dec. 28, 2012.

The Nasdaq
/quotes/zigman/12633936/realtimeCOMPhas trimmed its earlier decline and is down around a half point, or less than 0.1%, at 4,306.71. The index extended its losing streak to four sessions on Tuesday, the longest since August.

Oil futures, already feeling pressure on global growth worries tied to China, extended losses after Reuters reported that the U.S. government plans to release up to 5 million barrels of crude from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in a test sale.

Also, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said crude stockpiles jumped a larger-than-expected 6.2 million barrels in the week ended March 7.

While copper makes for an interesting discussion point about China, it’s worth remembering that investors have been pondering the disconnect between the S&P 500 and the industrial metal for a few years now.

Indeed, Tuesday’s slump by the metal saw several commentators again sardonically questioning where “Dr. Copper,” a nickname referring to the commodity’s one-time reputation as a global economic bellwether, earned its degree.

The Pretzel Logic blog, meanwhile, notes that the lack of correlation between copper and U.S. equities isn’t all that new:

Copper is generally correlated with economic growth, since it’s used in construction and for electrical and communications wiring, but, historically, copper prices don’t always correlate terribly well with U.S. equities. In fact, copper fell steadily from 1995 through 1999, losing more than half its value during one of the greatest bull runs in equities history.

Lots of talk about copper out there as the industrial metal continues a decline that’s taken it to its lowest level since July 2010. MarketWatch’s Carla Mozee makes a strong case for why investors should pay attention to what the metal is telling us about China’s economy.

What’s particularly interesting is copper’s transformation into a highly financialized product, which according to John Hardy of Saxo Bank, means copper’s fall can be “directly traced to the recent and obvious move” by China to weaken the yuan currency.

Among the big losers, shares of federally controlled mortgage buyers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were down hard in early going Wednesday. Shares had slumped in after-hours action the night before after U.S. lawmakers disclosed a blueprint for legislation to eliminate the entities.

Shares of Fannie Mae were down 14.4% in early trade, while Freddie dropped around 16.5%.

Among other losers, clothing retailer Express Inc. dropped nearly 12% after the retailer said it had an “extremely difficult” start to the year.

On the upside, shares of Oxigene Inc. more than doubled in price after the company posted positive results for its treatment of ovarian cancer. Read Movers & Shakers for more.

Concerns about a Chinese slowdown and Russia-Ukraine tensions put Asian and European equities under pressure in early activity. U.S. stocks are feeling the pressure, but to a lesser degree, with major indexes opening in the red. Here’s where we are in the early going:

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